Europol has locked up the world’s largest criminal network, arresting more than 80 people. Catalytic was the coordinated effort of the police as they managed to locate the messages where the members of the criminal group exchanged through an encrypted telephone network.
Belgian, Dutch, and French police state that they have managed to break into the Sky ECC network and track down the suspects. The criminal organization possessed customized devices in which they communicated to plot drug deals and murders.
To use the Sky ECC network is necessary to use a specific phone in order to send messages. The “phoney” devices as they called, as the network states, seem to have been sold through unauthorized channels, allowing illegal communication. Authorities were able to “invade” the network and monitor the flow of information from 70,000 users since February, stressing that they had not contacted the company but also that based on its policy, it has a strict zero-tolerance policy that prohibits any criminal activity on its platforms.
For the provision of the services of the Sky ECC network for six months, the users paid about 2,000 euros. The company in a statement denied that it had been violated but that its devices had been infected by a phishing application.
